Acer Predator 17 G9-791-73EX

This beauty and beast 17-inch laptop is one of the products in Acer Predator 17 line. It is surprisingly robust and perfect for a gaming laptop. The 17.3 inch display is optionally available with 1920 x 1080 or 3840 x 2160 resolution and uses IPS technology. It's a screen nearly everyone will love to look at from gamers to professionals that require color accuracy. This beast is undeniably a gaming laptop, so Acer made it a point also to include a full-size layout keyboard with num pad and beautiful backlights, which is what most gaming laptop offers. When it comes to performance, it is no surprise that this laptop performs fabulously in everyday tasks and handles complex application efficiently.
All of that is thanks to its great specifications. The Acer Predator 17 G9-791-73EX comes with an Intel Core i7 6700 HQ, an Nvidia GeForce GTX980M, a mountainous 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, and two storage devices of 2TB HDD plus a 512 GB SSD. Other features are Bluetooth, a DVD drive, an HDMI port, a mini DisplayPort, a Thunderbolt 3.0 port, four USB 3.0 ports, and an Ethernet port. The DVD drive is in a removable slot and can be quickly replaced with an additional cooling fan.

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Average Score:84.33% - goodAverage of 3 scores (from 3 reviews)

80%Review: Acer Predator 17Source: GadgetguyBig and bulky, Acer’s Predator may not offer the glitz and lights and total sense of customisation you get with some other gaming computer, but it still delivers quite a bit, and manages to even make itself stand out as one of Acer’s best computers in ages.
We’re still not sure if the price really works its way out, but in terms of performance in 2016, the 17 inch Acer Predator manages to pull its weight, handling its own with a decent keyboard and some neat performance features, too. Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 01/19/2016Rating:Total score: 80% price: 70% performance: 90% features: 90% workmanship: 80%

80%Acer Predator 17 reviewSource: Expert ReviewsThe Acer Predator 17 is a premium laptop which manages to justify its eye-watering price with top-level performance, and its superb build quality make it a genuinely desirable machine. However, up against the Asus RoG G571JT and the Gigabyte P37W v4, it's in competitive company. The £1,380 Gigabyte is significantly thinner and lighter than the Predator 17, making it more the practical device for mobile gamers, but the Asus is cheaper still at £1,260 (albeit for a slightly different spec from the model we reviewed in September). Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 01/14/2016Rating:Total score: 80%

Acer Predator 17 G9-791-730K

The Acer Predator 17 G9-791-730K belongs to the Acer Predator 17 series of gaming laptops. Featuring up to Intel Core i7 6700HQ, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, 16 GB of RAM, a 256 GB Solid State Drive and a 1 TB 7200 RPM hard drive, the Acer Predator 17 G9-791-730K is definitely a high performer for gaming purpose. It has a big 17.3 inch LED 16:9 Full HD display. Together with the Nvidia GeForce GTX980M with 4 GB VRAM, the system delivers a smooth gaming experience.
Connectivity includes four USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader, an HDMI port, a RJ45 connector, a microphone and a USB 3.1 Type C port. Moreover, the gaming laptop features a DVD-RW drive, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and a HD webcam. To further enhance gaming experience, it comes with four integrated HP premium Dolby Audio speakers and a keyboard with number pad and backlight. As Windows 10 is pre-installed, the system is ready to use upon purchasing. As for battery, it features an 8 cell Li-ion battery for gaming on the go.

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85.2%Acer Predator 17 G9-793 Notebook Review | NotebookcheckThe Mighty Giant. Just this May, we reviewed the Predator 17 G9-792 with GTX 980M GPU. Now Acer has released the nearly identical successor, this time equipped with a GTX 1070 graphics card. The behemoth manages to impress once again with special features like an additional FrostCore cooling fan. Is the Predator "cooler" than its competition?

Acer Predator 17 (GTX 1070) review – a more refined and advanced successor of the Predator lineupSource: Laptop MediaMost of the perks and flaws from the previous generation Predator 17 are present here as well but the minor adjustments and the major hardware changes take the laptop into a completely different league. It even makes us wonder, why Acer released the Predator 17X in the first place? The new generation of Predator 17 beats the 17X in almost every aspect – it’s slightly smaller, lighter and the new GTX 1070 outperforms the GTX 980. Moreover, the GTX 1070 doesn’t require all that extreme cooling to keep things running smoothly. Speaking of the GPU, we are really disappointed that this year’s model doesn’t use an iGPU leading to a extremely low battery runtimes. So the pricing of the base model will be crucial but we have a good reason to believe it will be slightly below €2 000. Note that by base model we mean the Full HD variant with no SSD included, only 2.5-inch HDD. Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 10/04/2016

Acer Predator 17 G9-793-77LN

The Acer Predator 17 G9-793-77LN is a high-performance gaming laptop released under Acer’s gaming, Predator series. It is built for the growing numbers of gamers on the go. It measures at 423 (W) x 321.5 (D) x 39.7 (H) (mm) and weight at 4.2kg but this is to be expected from a typical gaming laptop. The laptop is covered in many parts with LEDs that light up in different accents. The chassis gets a black theme with some red stripes on the lid and rear. The back looks like the radiator of a really cool sports car, something that was often noticed in the older generation, Ferrari and Lamborghini themed gaming laptops from Asus and Acer. On the lid, there is a massive Predator logo to remind people of its beastly capabilities. It is finished in soft plastic but is very tough and feels nice to touch. The keyboard has good tactile feel with 2mm travel distance and the large red LED framed trackpad is good with Windows 10 multitouch features. It has mechanical click buttons for a better response but gamers will definitely use a mouse instead.

The hardware specifications of the laptop are Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor of the sixth generation (4x 2.6 GHz to 3.5 GHz, 6 MB Intel Smart Cache), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 graphic processing unit with 8 GB GDDR5 VRAM and 64 GB DDR4 (2133 MHz) (4x 16 GB) RAM. As for storage, the laptop has a 1000 GB SATA 5400 rpm hard drive and a 512GB PCIe Solid State Disk (SSD), which brings it a total of 1512 GB of storage capacity. By featuring both conventional hard drive and solid state disk, storage of big files can happen in conventional hard drive while operating system, applications and gaming can happen in solid state disk for fast execution. In terms of hardware then, this laptop truly is in a very unique band. There aren’t many laptops out there that can match its specs. Its specs are a little too high even for a gaming laptop.

Entertainment features on a gaming laptop such as sound and display is important for the best gaming experience. For audio experience, the laptop is built in with Dolby audio Premium 4 Stereo Speakers. It even has a built in subwoofer for a pure gaming experience. To further improve audio experience, Predator SoundPound 4.2 is built in for users to tune audio based on their preference. As for the display, it features a 17.3 inches (43.9cm) Acer ComfyView Ultra HD IPS display. It comes with 100% Adobe RGB colour space with LED backlight and a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels. It is a matte display which is somehow important if someone is interested in outdoor gaming. Like the hardware, its display is also something that stands out of the crowd and only a few can beat it.

Besides that, an integrated dual array microphone is built into the laptop for convenience to communicate while gaming in a team. To reduce lag while gaming, it uses a Killer Wireless-AC 1535 Wi-Fi 802.11 ac / a / b / g / n adapter for Wi-Fi connection. Other connectivity features include Bluetooth v4.1 and GigaBit LAN. The laptop is packed with a 8 cell Li-ion battery which is capable of delivering up to 7 hours of battery life but that suggested life probably isn’t for gaming. For input and output ports, it has a DisplayPort, HDMI port, four USB 3.0 ports, a USB 3.1 port, thunderbolt 3 port and a card reader. The Acer Predator 17 G9-793-77LN is a really good gaming laptop, among the best actually (2016). However, for its price, there are a few other options to pick from, namely the Alienware 17 and MSI GT72VR.

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Average Score:77.5% - goodAverage of 2 scores (from 2 reviews)

70%Acer Predator 15 (2017) review: A cool gaming laptopSource: Gadget ShowAcer is giving some neat new things in the Acer Predator 15 (2017) like Killer double shot pro feature that enables the user to split their bandwidth requirement over Wi-Fi and Ethernet. The ability to swap the DVD drive with an additional fan is relevant for a gaming machine. Which makes issues like overheating evaporate. However, competitors like Asus and MSI are giving slightly better specs at lesser price. This one retails for Rs 1,59,990 which we feel can hurt Acer's market. Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 05/09/2017Rating:Total score: 70%

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Average Score:75% - goodAverage of 1 scores (from 2 reviews)

75%Acer Predator 17 G9-793 review – gaming laptop with Nvidia GTX 1070 graphicsSource: Ultrabook ReviewThe Acer Predator 17 G9-793 builds on the previous Predators and adds-on Nvidia GTX 1070 graphics, GSync support and a Thunderbolt 3 port, so it's going to be a good buy for those of you on a mid-budget looking to get a solid 17-inch gaming laptop. On the other hand, it's not quite on par with some of the competitors available these days in terms of features, design and even performance, so the pricing is going to be the crucial aspect that can make or break this device for you. Read on to find out more. Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 09/10/2016Rating:Total score: 75%

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Average Score:85.67% - goodAverage of 3 scores (from 5 reviews)

80%Acer Predator 17 (2017, GTX 1070) Review and RatingsSource: Computer ShopperThere’s little we could point out that's actually wrong with the Acer Predator 17. It’s one of the best-rounded 17.3-inch gaming notebooks we’ve tested. In terms of overall design and focus on the end-user experience, the Predator 17 is second to none. Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 04/12/2017Rating:Total score: 80%

Acer Predator 17 G9-793-76Z1

As written on Hardware4All, Acer introduced their first gaming notebooks from the Predator family, which have been very successful on the gaming laptop market in 2015: “Now the Taiwanese manufacturer puts a line in the new generation of graphics card NVIDIA Pascal.” We are mentioning the Acer Predator 17 which is powered by the Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor in combination with the NVIDIA GTX 1070 discrete graphics card. Its name is fitting, since it actually is a monster: “Of all the big, red monsters that are the Acer Predator series of gaming laptops, this might be the biggest and reddest yet. The Predator 17 is a gargantuan top-of-the-line machine that, while sharing a broad design with the Predator 15, makes it look like a whelp” (TechRadar).

DESIGN

According to Hardware4All, the time when gaming laptops were thick and cumbersome lies in the past, and the design of modern gaming models is not aggressive: “Like MSI, Gigabyte and Clevo, Acer has chosen a relatively simple housing without frills.” LaptopMedia remarks that the overall appearance is largely the same with some little tweaks here and there, and because most of the connectors are positioned on the right side, it is a bit difficult to use the mouse on the right, especially when space is scarce. Starting from the top cover, TomsHardware writes in their review that the Acer Predator 17 features a matte-black rubberized plastic finish that is satisfying to the touch: “Although this sort of preference is subjective, the rubberized texture has the added bonus of being fingerprint and smudge resistant.” In addition, as UltrabookReview comments, the Acer Predator 17 is a massive and thick notebook with a soft plastic finish, similar to the older Asus ROG laptops of 2013 - 2015, which you might have seen around, as they were very popular in those days and still are today. Meanwhile, ComputerShopper says that the 16.7-inch width of the Predator 17’s body is normal for a notebook with a 17.3-inch screen, but its depth of 12.7 inches is almost two inches deeper than the average of its class. The reviewer considers that the 1.6 inches thick chassis is also formidable. This means Acer was not trying to keep the weight or the size of this notebook down. Following a remark of Hardware4All, as for the material, Acer has chosen plastic, but it is coated with a soft-touch material : “As a result, the plastic feels nice and expensive, and the strength of the body is good.”

DISPLAY

The Full-HD 17.3-inch IPS display outputting at 75Hz of the Acer Predator 17 “also features Nvidia’s G-Sync Technology, which should make lower frame rates more bearable. Additional displays can be connected from the HDMI and DisplayPorts” (quote from TomsHardware). Hardware4All reports that the Acer Predator 17 has a display with an IPS panel with a maximum brightness of about 326 cd/m2, which can be considered a good value. But illumination uniformity is not ideal. LaptopMedia also can not say anything bad about the almost flawless panel, since it inherited all the excellent properties they have seen in the previous version: “It covers all the colors from the sRGB and Adobe RGB color space, it’s extremely bright, it has high contrast, high resolution.” PCMag remarks that the display is also different: The Acer Predator 17 has a 17.3-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080, which remains the best resolution for gaming right now. “The panel is bright and rich enough, with deep blacks and good contrast, the color coverage is excellent and the colors are quite accurate out of the box, plus the viewing angles are solid,” says UltrabookReview. ComputerShopper writes that they were by no means disappointed by the Predator 17’s 1080p display: “We would, however, like to see a 1440p display option available at some point, as the GeForce GTX 1070 is more than capable of driving that resolution.”

KEYBOARD AND TOUCHPAD

According to Hardware4All, the Acer Predator 17 has nice, large 16 x 16 mm keys and the distance between the keys is ideal - 4mm: “Of course, the course could be deeper but the switching point is well palpable. On this keyboard, you cannot only play, but also comfortable to type long texts.” The reviewer for TomsHardware thinks that the Predator’s scissor-switch keyboard features RGB backlighting that can be adjusted via the PredatorSense software: Most of the keycaps have plain white text, but the WASD and arrow keycaps are red. They also add: “There’s nothing special about the keyboard that sets it apart, but there isn’t anything to complain about either.” In UltrabookReview’s opinion, the keys are backlit with RGB lights and the layout is split in four different parts that can be backlit independently. There is still only one level of brightness intensity, though, and the overall brightness level is rather low. Meanwhile, ComputerShopper complains that their biggest nitpick is that the keyboard deck has Caps Lock or Num Lock LED indicators: “When you press either of those keys, however, an onscreen icon pops up to indicate the status.”

Hardware4All shows their evident opinion that the Acer Predator 17’s touchpad is not great: “It has highlighted the right and left mouse buttons, but they are too easy to press and with play, creating a feeling of sponges. The finger glides over the surface of the touchpad is not as easy as we would like. But the touchpad determines the movement exactly the same concerns and gestures multi-touch.” In contrast, TomsHardware does not have any complaints about the touchpad: The smooth, matte surface has very little friction, making for a comfortable tracking experience, especially with its multi-touch functions. Besides, the separate left and right click button have a bumpy tactile feedback and are also comfortable to use. According to UltrabookReview, the LED frame around the trackpad can be switched off by turning the keyboard illumination off or by deactivating the trackpad completely, but there is no way to just simply kill it independently. “That’s rather stupid if you ask me, but given this a gaming laptop and most of you will probably have a mouse connected anyway, let’s just say it is not a deal breaker,” says UltrabookReview’s reviewer.

PERFORMANCE

Inside the version of the Acer Predator 17 PCMag reviewed, there is a 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ CPU, a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 GPU and 16GB of RAM. This is considered a potent mix for a mid-range gaming system. “Compared to last year’s Predator with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 chip, the Predator 17 shows a 30 to 70% boost in graphics related scores, which is also visible in games. Some of the test games are fairly demanding and you can see that the 1070 chip is going to offer an excellent 1080p experience and will handle 4K gaming quite well too, but you will have to lower details to some extent to get to 60 fps results” (UltrabookReview). Also, ComputerShopper comments that the Predator 17 has built-in GPU overclocking via the pre-installed Acer Predator Sense software and that the differences were not small for an automatic overclocking feature. Particularly, this page reports: “Using 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme, we measured a baseline overall score of 7269, which increased to 7666 when overclocked. That’s a respectable performance increase of just over 5 percent, all from a couple of mouse clicks.” As the results of Hardware4All’s performance tests show, the Acer Predator 17 does not have any problems with new games like “Grand Theft Auto 5”, “Dirt Rally”, “The Witcher 3” or “Shadow of Mordor” when the native resolution is limited to Full HD: Depending on the test, they received from 40 to 200 fps. “That said, there’s nothing wrong with having extra power, the GTX 1070 might be overkill for 1080p now, but we predict it won’t be a year or two down the line” (ComputerShopper).

THERMAL, AUDIO AND NOISE

Talking about heat issues, Hardware4All shows that under extreme load, the Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor reaches temperatures of up to 96°C, but they have not perceived any throttling when the CPU was at its maximum performance. The surface temperature of the top panel was 27°C, the temperature of the lower panel was 28°C. In LaptopMedia’s opinion, the temperatures remained relatively low considering the nature and the duration of the stress test: “This right and middle side of the notebook can get a little warmer but nothing that will take away the pleasure of long gaming sessions for sure.” Furthermore, according to UltrabookReview’s reviewer, the fans can ramp up significantly under load. He measured a maximum noise level of 52 dB at head level when pushing them to their maximum speeds, but we should only expect 48-50 dB in daily use while gaming, which is still loud and will probably push users to use headphones. “When it comes to the audio, Acer went with a 4.2 system here with a total power of 12W, and although the two subwoofers (placed on the belly, behind that red metallic shield) don’t really push a lot of bass, the overall sound coming out of the Predator is significantly nicer than most other laptops can provide,” remarks UltrabookReview.

BATTERY LIFE

The battery life Hardware4All measured does not live up to Acer’s claims in some tests: the battery lasted just over two hours. Using the machine for office tasks was better, the Predator 17 lasted for nearly five hours. As LaptopMedia writes, it is quite unlikely that we will start a gaming session without being close to a power source, but it is good to know that we can play for more than two hours and 7 minutes. Notwithstanding: “While no one would expect excellent battery life from a gaming laptop, the Predator 17 did fairly well. On our video rundown test, it lasted an impressive 4 hours, 44 minutes” (PCMag). Also, on a positive note, ComputerShopper comments that the Acer Predator 17’s large battery has helped it get a spot at the top of the charts: “Just shy of five hours is a good number for a 17.3 inch gaming notebook. The Nvidia G-Sync support on the display of our test unit mandates its GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card be in use the whole time, making the result even more notable.”

SUMMARY

“At the end of the day, the new Predator 17 with GTX 1070 is all about meaningful upgrades making the laptop more refined and delivering the ultimate user experience. There’s some still work to be done for the next generation but we hope Acer keeps up the pace and learn from its mistake,” LaptopMedia concludes. Regardless of some unexpected flaws, such as a not very good trackpad, heaviness, or even no internal graphics card, the Acer Predator 17 is still regarded as a great laptop. Some of its advantages include good performance, good hardware, a good keyboard, a simple but stylish design, and decent battery life. However, we still expect much more evolution or improvement of later versions of this series from Acer. Finally, in PCMag’s verdict: “This is a laptop for gamers who want the world to know that they are not ashamed of a strong, bold, red-and-black gamer aesthetic - but would rather not take out a mortgage to get a system that can deliver high-quality gaming or handle a VR headset.”

Comment

Acer: The company was founded under the name of Multitech in Taiwan in 1976 and renamed to Acer or Acer Group in 1987. The product range includes, for example, laptops, tablets, smartphones, desktops, monitors and televisions. Gateway Inc. and Packard Bell also belong to the Group and sell their own laptops.

While Acer still had the third largest global market share in the notebook segment in 2008, it ranked 6th in 2016 with a market share of 6% after they had continuously lost market shares.

There are dozens of Acer laptop reviews per month, the ratings are average (as of 2016). Gateway, which has an own laptop line-up, has also belonged to the Acer Group since 2007.

With these GPUs you are able to play modern and demanding games fluently at medium detail settings and HD resolution.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M:

Second fastest high-end graphics card based on the Maxwell GM204 chip from the GeForce GTX 900M series.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M:

Fast high-end graphics card based on the Maxwell GM204 chip from the GeForce GTX 900M series.

These graphics cards are able to play the latest and most demanding games in high resolutions and full detail settings with enabled Anti-Aliasing.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Laptop): Pascal based high-end mobile graphics card based on a cut down GP104 (like the GTX 1080) and GDDR5 graphics memory. Successor to the GTX 980M with a 10 Watts higher TDP. Similar to the desktop GTX 1070 performance wise, but with more shaders and lower clock speeds.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Laptop): The mobile GTX 1060 is based on the GP106 chip and offer 1280 shaders. Compared to the identically named desktop version it features a slightly lower clock rate. Games in Full HD and maximum details should run fluently on the card.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Laptop): Pascal based laptop graphics card using GDDR5 graphics memory. Should offer a similar performance to the deskto GTX 1080. However, there is also a more power efficient "Max-Q" version that performs worse than the normal GTX1080 and is used in thin and light laptops.» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.Intel Core i7: The Intel Core i7 for laptops is based on the LG1156 Core i5/i7 CPU for desktops. The base clock speed of the CPUs is relatively low, but because of a huge Turbo mode, the cores can dynamically overclock to up to 3.2 GHz (920XM). Therefore, the CPU can be as fast as high clocked dual-core CPUs (using single threaded applications) but still offer the advantage of 4 cores. Because of the large TDP of 45 W / 55 W, the CPU is only intended for large laptops. 6700HQ: Skylake-based quad-core processor for notebooks. Offers an integrated HD Graphics 530 GPU and is manufactured in 14 nm.7820HQ: Quad-core notebook processor based on the Kaby Lake architecture running at 2.9 - 3.9 GHz. It is the second fastest model of the consumer H-series in the beginning of 2017. The chip also integrates the HD Graphics 630 GPU clocked at 350 - 1100 MHz and is manufactured in a 14 nm process (improved compared to Skylake).7700HQ: Quad-core notebook processor based on the Kaby Lake architecture. Besides four CPU cores (including Hyper Threading), the chips also integrates the HD Graphics 630 GPU and is manufactured in an improved 14 nm process.
» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.

3.9 kg:

This weight is representative for typical laptops with a 14-16 inch display-diagonal.

4.5 kg:

83.81%: This rating should be considered to be average. This is because the proportion of notebooks which have a higher rating is approximately equal to the proportion which have a lower rating.» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.